Marriage License

Marriage License is an oil painting by American illustrator Norman Rockwell created for the cover of the June 11, 1955, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. It depicts a young man and woman filling out a marriage license application at a government building in front of a bored-looking clerk. The man is dressed in a tan suit and has his arm around his partner, who is wearing a yellow dress and standing on tiptoe to sign her name. Although the room and its furnishings are dark, the couple are illuminated by the window beside them. The contrast between the couple and the clerk highlights two reoccurring themes in Rockwell's works: young love and ordinary life.

Rockwell had a long history of using people who lived near him as models. He used photographs of local shopkeeper Jason Braman; Stockbridge, Massachusetts, native Joan Lahart; and her fiancé Francis Mahoney as a reference while creating the painting. Lahart was suggested for the role by her sister Peggy, a nurse at the Austen Riggs Center where Mary Rockwell was receiving treatment. During the photo shoot, Braman was captured in a more natural and uninterested pose compared to the one envisioned by the artist. Rockwell liked it and used it for his painting instead.

Since its appearance in The Saturday Evening Post, the painting has been praised by critics and is considered one of Rockwell's best works. Commentators have compared it to the works of Johannes Vermeer due to Rockwell's use of light and dark. The 45.5 by 42.5 inches (116 cm × 108 cm) painting is in the collection of the Norman Rockwell Museum and has been a part of major exhibitions in 1955, 1972, and 1999. In 2004 Mad magazine published a parody of Marriage License by Richard William that used the original work to explore how same-sex marriage challenges the meaning of marriage and government role.

Marriage License is an oil painting on canvas measuring 45.5 by 42.5 inches (116 cm × 108 cm). It is set in a dark city hall office filled with bookshelves. The floor is strewn with used cigarettes and a brass spittoon. In the middle of the painting stand a young couple in front of a rolltop desk filling out their application for a marriage license. The man is wearing a tan suit and has his arm protectively around his fiancée. The woman wears a yellow dress with high heels but has to stand on her tiptoes to sign the document. Light from the open window beams down on the couple's faces.

A bored looking older man in a bow tie and waistcoat sits behind the desk, with a cat resting beside his chair. Rubber galoshes have been placed over his shoes. The wearied look on the clerk's face starkly contrasts with the excited couple. Behind the clerk, in the window, sits a single red geranium. On top of the bookshelf is an unfolded United States flag, thought by the Norman Rockwell Museum to be a sign that the couple has come in at the very end of the day. In the background a calendar gives the date as June 11, 1955, the date the painting appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

Marriage License highlights two reoccurring themes in Norman Rockwell's works: the drab of ordinary life and the excitement of young love. The subject choice of a couple signing a marriage license, in private, rather than a public wedding was a deliberate one. Throughout his career, Rockwell consistently opted to show small moments of American life. Love is a topic that Rockwell explored extensively in paintings such as The Letterman (1938), Little Girl Observing Lovers on a Train (1944), Before the Date (1949), and The University Club (1960). Marriage License is one of the few times he directly addressed the theme post-World War II. The subject is amplified by the juxtaposition of the excited young couple next to the uninterested clerk. Depending on the side of the desk the painting is being viewed from, the day depicted in the painting is either run-of-the-mill or monumental.

Rockwell moved from Arlington, Vermont, to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1953 to be close to his wife Mary, who was receiving psychiatric treatment at the Austen Riggs Center, and to receive therapy from Erik Erikson. He set up a studio and continued to paint illustrations for magazine covers and yearly Boy Scout calendars.

Starting in the 1930s Rockwell created his paintings from 50 to 100 reference photographs. The models for these were often drawn from the local community. Marriage License's three main figures – the young couple and the older man – are drawn from around Stockbridge. The office and surrounding buildings draw from both Johannes Vermeer's The Little Street and photographs of Stockbridge's town clerk's office.